The Detroit Red Wings found out about the NHL's tolerant attitude toward goaltender interference on Thursday night, and the kind of goal that would never stand if Tomas Holmstrom were involved ended up costing them yet another third-period lead and yet another point.

The Phoenix Coyotes were quite satisfied with shoving Chris Osgood and the puck into the net to tie what would ultimately become a 3-2 overtime win over Detroit, as the Arizona Republic's Jim Gintonio notes:

October 23, Arizona Republic: The battle in the crease in front of Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood was intense. And the winner was Petr Prucha.
The Coyotes forward, holding his own in the scrum, hammered away at
the puck and pushed it into the net to tie the score with 2:40 left in
the third period and propel the Coyotes to a stunning, 3-2 overtime
victory over the Red Wings on Thursday night in front of 11,938 at Jobing.com Arena.

Defenseman Adrian Aucoin slammed in the game-winner with 3:03 left
in overtime, as his shot from the top of the circle handcuffed Osgood
and the puck ricocheted in off his upper body.

"We haven't been producing too many points . . . and I hope this goal can help us in the future," Prucha said.

It sure helped on this night, as the Coyotes (6-2) won their fourth
consecutive game and have prevailed in six of their first eight for
only the third time in franchise history. It also gave the Coyotes wins
over the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and runner-up Red
Wings (3-3-2).

"It says they've got a lot of will to win, which is good," coach
Dave Tippett said of the Coyotes' resiliency. "We hung in there. We
weren't getting much in the third period, they (Red Wings) were playing
well, but we hung around. I loved way we just decided we were throwing pucks at the crease to
see what happens, and Prucha made a heck of a play to come up with a
loose puck to score a goal."

Detroit coach Mike Babcock said he thought Coyotes players were pushing
Osgood into net, and "I didn't think that was allowed." But Babcock
added, "We were in a situation to win a game with very little time
left."

That was the bottom line in a game where the Wings did what the Wings have done all year long, with a twist--they gave up the game's first goal, rallied to take a 2-1 lead, and then blew it, as the AP's recap notes:

October 23, DetroitRedWings.com: Matthew Lombardi opened the scoring on a power-play goal for the Coyotes, who beat Detroit for the second time in the last 13 meetings (2-9-2). Tomas Holmstrom and Brett Lebda scored for the Red Wings, who have lost two straight. No fewer than three players were in the crease and Prucha himself was flat on his stomach when he scored the tying goal.

"It was two funky plays for their last two goals," said Henrik Zetterberg, who assisted on both Detroit goals. "Hopefully we'll get that back sometime soon. It's tough to lose this way. I thought we played a good game."

Osgood made the initial save and the puck remained near his left pad as Phoenix left wing Radim Vrbata was nudged into the goalie by Datsyuk and Lebda. Prucha, while laying on the ice, managed to slide his stick through the scrum and help push the puck in to the net. Video replay officials reviewed the play for several minutes before upholding the goal.

Sure, nudged into the goalie...

"I thought they were pushing the goalie into the net," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "To me I didn't think that was allowed but it didn't matter. We were set up to win the game and we ended up shooting ourselves in the foot."

While Jonathan Ericsson did a nice job of screening his goaltender as Adrian Aucoin ripped the game-winning goal toward the net...

Aucoin took an outlet pass from Jim Vandermeer and fired a sharp wrist shot from the outer edge of the right faceoff circle that got past Chris Osgood's right skate.

Try his blocker...

"They said if you shoot the puck on the net good things happen," Aucoin said. "It was a lucky one."

And Coyotes coach Dave Tippett told the Arizona Republic's Sarah McLellan and PhoenixCoyotes.com's David Vest that he was pleased with Prucha--and his team's--overall "jam"...

October 23, Arizona Republic: “Those guys hung around the game hard,” coach Dave Tippett said.
“They checked pretty well but when they got some opportunities, they
got it to the net.”

Prucha’s goal was his second on the year, and Tippett was impressed with his willingness to fight for space in front of the net.

“I like the way Prucha goes to the net hard,” he said. “He’s not a
big guy. He’s scored a couple goals for us just like that that have
been big for us. He had one in the Pittsburgh game and then one tonight.

“They’re goals that are hard to score. You have to go into hard areas, so I compliment him on that.”

October 23, PhoenixCoyotes.com: After the game, Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett was asked what the come-from-behind victory against such a formidable opponent like Detroit says about his players.

“It says they’ve got a lot of will to win, which is good,” Tippett replied. “We hung in there. We weren’t getting much in the third period, they were playing pretty well and we weren’t getting much but we hung around."

Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made 25 saves to post his sixth victory of the young season.

All-Star Pavel Datsyuk returned to Detroit’s lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury. He provided the primary assist on both of Detroit’s goals, including Brett Lebda’s at 7:45 of the second period that gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead, which they held until Prucha’s goal with 2:40 left in regulation.

Henrik Zetterberg summed up the Wings' take on the game, as told to Vest:

“It’s just tough to lose this way...It was just two funky plays on their last two goals."

Shane Doan made an ironic comment about the Coyotes' win, as NHL.com's Recap noted...

October 23, NHL.com: "We've had a couple of games at home where we were down going into
the third, and we knew there were going to be ugly goals. We have to
keep going to the net, keep throwing the puck at the net.

"We're going to go until the whistle blows, and when the puck's in
there, we're going to keep swinging at it. It wasn't very pretty, but
it counted."

Not surprisingly, Babcock saw it differently.

"I thought they pushed Ozzie into the net," he said. "The bottom line is that's what (the referees) decided."

That being said, Babcock wasn't in the mood for excuses:

"It's very disappointing," he said. "I thought we had the game under
control. We got a point and we did a lot of good things, but it's a
disappointing loss."

Chris Osgood agreed, as he told the Detroit News's Chris McCosky:

October 23, Detroit News: "It's just so frustrating because we've played pretty good the last
couple of games and haven't been rewarded for it," goaltender Chris
Osgood said Thursday night, after the Wings gave up the lead with 2:40
left and were beaten in overtime by the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2.
"Everybody feels real good. It's just one of those times in the season
where we aren't getting any breaks."

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It was the Coyotes' fourth straight win,
the Wings' third straight road loss and the second straight game they
coughed up the lead in the final 2½ minutes.

"We were set up to
win the game and we ended up shooting ourselves in the foot and costing
ourselves a point," coach Mike Babcock said. "If you don't win on a
consistent basis, it piles up on you and gets you on your heels."

Osgood discussed Prucha's goal...

"The puck was sitting underneath my leg and they kept jamming away and
pretty much pushed me in the net with it," Osgood said. "All game (the
referees) were trying to make me play the puck and yelling at me to
move it. I did it one time and wound up getting us pinned in the zone.
I told them, 'If you lose sight, you have to blow it.' You aren't
supposed to be able to get pushed in with the puck, and that's what
happened."

As well as the game-winner...

"I tried to steer it into the corner but it ramped up my stick and went
off my hand," Osgood said. "I feel real good. I feel like I am trending
up and just can't get a break right now. We are doing all the right
things, but we've been unlucky -- kind of snakebit. But over the course
of a season, these things tend to even out."

Nicklas Lidstrom wasn't pleased with the fact that Brett Lebda chose to make a fancy backhand pass to Jonathan Ericsson, coughing up the puck and leading to Prucha's goal...

"It's a concern, even with the way the goal happened," captain Nick
Lidstrom said. "We were unable to play with a lead, keep the lead and
get the two points. It's something we have to do better. We played well
tonight. I thought we came out with the right attitude, but it wasn't
good enough."

And Babcock wisely pointed out that the Wings didn't necessarily lose the game simply because they got burned by a pair of weird goals:

"I thought Pav was real good," Babcock said. "But as a group, we need
to generate more offense. We had a power play early in the third that I
would have liked to score on. We had other chances and we just couldn't
get that (two-goal) gap."

Lidstrom also addressed the referees' decision to let Prucha's game-winner stand upon review in speaking to MLive.com's own Ansar Khan:

October 23, MLive.com: Said Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom: “Refs said they were just
battling for the puck. Sounded like (the referee) didn’t really see or
know where the puck was.’’...“I
just thought they were pushing the goalie into the net. To me, I didn’t
think that was allowed, I thought it should be blown,’’ Babcock said.
“That doesn’t matter. We were in a situation set up to win the game
with very little time left. I thought we did a lot of really good
things and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot and costing
ourselves a point.’’

Overall, however...

The Red Wings (3-3-2) have squandered leads in four of their losses.

“It’s a concern -- even if the goal happens the way it did -- that we were unable to keep the lead,’’ Babcock said.

“When
you got the lead with three minutes to go, you can’t be losing those
games,’’ Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart said. “It’s been two games in
a row we’ve given up leads. That’s not our team, that’s not the way we
need to play. Seemed like we laid back a little bit and stopped attacking, and that’s when they’re going to get their chances.’’

That happened after the squandered power play. The Wings got cute, trying to score an open-net tap-in instead of ripping pucks at the net and retrieving the rebounds for second opportunities, and they ended up chasing cleared pucks back down the ice instead.

“It’s frustrating. We played pretty good the last couple of games, we haven’t been rewarded for it,’’ Osgood said.“We
feel like we’ve been snake-bit a little bit. These things over the
course of the year kind of even themselves out. So we have to not get
down, I think we’re playing pretty good.’’

Is "Pretty good" enough? It may be early, but in Detroit, what's essentially a 3-and-5 record isn't good enough...but as the Free Press's Helene St. James notes, Osgood deserves a slight break on the gamer (I hate to sound like Don Cherry, but when your defenseman waves his stick in front of the puck, it's hard to get set, and Osgood was surprised that Aucoin's shot wasn't going five-hole) given that he essentially bought the Wings time to regain their sea legs during a first period in which they looked like they hadn't played hockey in four days:

October 23, Detroit Free Press: On the downside: For the second time in two games, the Wings
have let a one-goal lead slip away with less than 3minutes left in the
third period to go to overtime, and ended up still searching for their
first road victory of the season.

Two Cents:
Osgood once again did his part, making 13 saves in the first period and
keeping the Wings in the game until Detroit's skaters got going.

For the record, the Wings were outshot 12 to 8 in the third period and outshot 33-28 overall, and while the positives on the stat sheet include 5 shots from Nicklas Lidstrom, 5 hits from Darren Helm, 3 blocked shots by Niklas Kronwall and Brian Rafalski, respectively, and a single registered giveaway, the Wings lost the faceoff battle by a 34 to 27 tally (winning 44% of their draws), and they shot a massive 21 shots wide of Ilya Bryzgalov, and fired 11 shots into Coyotes players.

When the Wings attempt to put the puck on the net, blocked and wide shots included, a total of 65 times but only score two goals and give up three, largely due to giveaways and breakdowns, that's not acceptable Red Wings hockey, period.

The Wings have struggled for the same reasons they lost games in the Western Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals--their power play's been ineffective when attempting to build a much-needed 2-goal lead, they've relied upon Osgood far too regularly to bail the team out when it gives away pucks inside the defensive zone, the penalty-kill remains mediocre at best, the third defensive pairing makes the Wings look like they miss Andreas Lilja's steady defensive play like nobody's business, and while Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader provide enthusiasm in spades, Kirk Maltby's trying to carry a pair of similarly Lebda/Ericsson-esque players in terms of making mistakes and looking tremendously vulnerable as they're pushed back into their own end, giving up faceoffs and allowing the opposition to cycle down low and generate scoring chances.

The Wings know how to fix these issues, but they have yet to get down to the detail-oriented business of actually addressing them, and at this point, the coaching staff's decisions to force-feed Helm and Abdelkader ice time and mix up their top four defensive pairings (Nicklas Lidstrom has had to play the right point to compensate for Niklas Kronwall's inability to do so, and Brad Stuart and Brian Rafalski are so used to playing a little further back to cover up for their usual partners' offensive rushes that they look tremendously tentative) seem to indicate that they can't take a hint.

The Wings need some veteran savvy and stability to right their ship, and right it fast, but the coaches, and the veterans, have to commit to building confidence instead of attempting to go away from experimental personnel combinations and plain old accepting a level of play which includes far too many mistakes and far too little of the Red Wings' usual trademark confidence in their ability to win games on a regular basis.

In the slightly censored words of my late father, the Wings have to stop, "[Term for a part of the male body]ing around."